Emani, Chandrakanth. (2010). Using the ‘DNA Story’ to Inculcate a Scientific Thought Process in the Classroom. The American Biology Teacher, 72(7), 410-413.
Summary:
The article “Using the ‘DNA Story’ to Inculcate a Scientific Though Process in the Classroom” describes a way in which incorporating another subject, such as history, can spark the interest of students in the scientific method, and cause them to be more critical and analytical in using the scientific process. The goal of this collaboration is to show students that although there are basic steps to most methods in science, the subject and theories are continuously changing and growing. There is actually nothing stagnant about science besides some of the ways teachers have been educating students about the content.
In this particular article, the teacher told the story of how the DNA model was discovered and proposed through collaboration and an essential dramatic race to be first. He broke his story down into components to set the tone for the story and grasp students attention, display the importance that scientific discoveries holds worldwide, the growing story from Darwin to Watson, the unique experiments that led to the gradual changes in the model, and finally the process that leads to a new theory. The teacher found that doing this caused students to question theories and ideas in weeks that followed because they now had this idea of scientists being human, making mistakes and growing from experience.
Overall the students wanted to know more than what was on the pages of their textbooks because they knew there was a potential story to them, and that combining history with science expanded their ideas of the most basic principles of beginners biology, scientific method and the scientific thought process.
Review:
This article seems to really be working towards the same goals that forward education is looking for. How can we as educators get students to think more analytically without spelling it out for them? How do we get students to want to know more about a subject and want to explore its multiple dimensions? Although this article only provided one example of how to spark students’ interest, its overall message was greater than that. Combining contents makes science more approachable because realistically it is not an isolated subject. Teaching topics in creative ways will open the class up to learning in more creative ways and gives them more opportunities to find ideas that connect and relate which is an excellent way to commit things to memory.
Jamie M
http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1525/abt.2010.72.7.4
Summary:
The article “Using the ‘DNA Story’ to Inculcate a Scientific Though Process in the Classroom” describes a way in which incorporating another subject, such as history, can spark the interest of students in the scientific method, and cause them to be more critical and analytical in using the scientific process. The goal of this collaboration is to show students that although there are basic steps to most methods in science, the subject and theories are continuously changing and growing. There is actually nothing stagnant about science besides some of the ways teachers have been educating students about the content.
In this particular article, the teacher told the story of how the DNA model was discovered and proposed through collaboration and an essential dramatic race to be first. He broke his story down into components to set the tone for the story and grasp students attention, display the importance that scientific discoveries holds worldwide, the growing story from Darwin to Watson, the unique experiments that led to the gradual changes in the model, and finally the process that leads to a new theory. The teacher found that doing this caused students to question theories and ideas in weeks that followed because they now had this idea of scientists being human, making mistakes and growing from experience.
Overall the students wanted to know more than what was on the pages of their textbooks because they knew there was a potential story to them, and that combining history with science expanded their ideas of the most basic principles of beginners biology, scientific method and the scientific thought process.
Review:
This article seems to really be working towards the same goals that forward education is looking for. How can we as educators get students to think more analytically without spelling it out for them? How do we get students to want to know more about a subject and want to explore its multiple dimensions? Although this article only provided one example of how to spark students’ interest, its overall message was greater than that. Combining contents makes science more approachable because realistically it is not an isolated subject. Teaching topics in creative ways will open the class up to learning in more creative ways and gives them more opportunities to find ideas that connect and relate which is an excellent way to commit things to memory.
Jamie M